well, i'm up getting my computer ready for the work ahead and lo and behold, i have to download a bunch of new Micro$oft security patches to patch their buggy software.

and as i suspected, much of the patches are to correct potential buffer overflow problems. (if they spent the time to review their code they wouldn't have this problem!)

are there any linux users here? i've read that many linux distributions come with everything you need to get your computer instantly up and running including drivers for most major sound cards, video cards, and other hardware.

plus, the free price is attractive.

so, if anyone here has any experience with linux and wishes to discuss it, please feel free.

i'm certain that there will be other readers here who will be interested in this.

thank you.

(i didn't post this in the technobabble forum because hardly no one goes there.)

open source software is a voluntary collaborative effort. no governmental entity directs it to occur. no governmental entity controls it, or seizes income, assets or private property to make it happen.

people do have the right to work on such projects in their free time, don't they?

altCountryGuy

2005-02-09, 06:52 AM

Lighten up, Francis. It's a joke. Pull the corncob out of your ass for a while.

spiritinaphoto

2005-02-09, 09:26 AM

Yep, I'm a Linux user. Am I going to give you any advice? :lol

Try Google. That's your tech support for Linux.

Cruzweb

2005-02-09, 10:58 AM

Linux is great. SuSE 9.2 is the the way to go with the 2.6 kernel. Just brush up on your command line stuff and you should be ready to rock with it.

thisistoto

2005-02-09, 01:09 PM

Pull the corncob out of your ass for a while.

You really are a hick huh?
:lol :lol :lol

starman714

2005-02-09, 01:16 PM

I tried Mandrake 10 for awhile but had so much trouble d/l anything....it recognised my hardware , np , but I couldn't figure out how to create a directory for the d/l to go into... :confused: i really didn't have time or patience to learn it and i'm so used to windows interface where there are so many ways to just click open 'my computer' if i want to create folders and blah blah blah....and it opens places up automatically...i didn't want to give up linux , i'm just not smart/patient enough to get with it...i'm barely with windows , either , compared to ppl who grew up w/ p.c.'s..... :(

bowman

2005-02-09, 01:20 PM

I openly support and use linux. I also encourage people who have the interest to learn linux to do it. Get a livecd and try it out.

And as long as your computer wasnt built by a troglodyte, you'll be satisfied with the results.

kotti

2005-02-09, 02:09 PM

Indeed give some livecd a try. You run the whole thing from a CD or DVD and don't have to install anything to the hard drive. It's a great way to see if your hardware is recognized properly and just try different things out before you start properly migrating from Windows to Linux.

Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org/) is the best livecd I've tried.

Suse is an excellent choice too, very professional but incredibly easy to use. Never liked the Mandrake look that much but you can't really go wrong with any of the big ones.

Cruzweb

2005-02-09, 02:31 PM

Suse is an excellent choice too, very professional but incredibly easy to use. Never liked the Mandrake look that much but you can't really go wrong with any of the big ones.
I consider the big ones SuSE/Novell, Debian, Mandrake, Slackware. I very much do NOT reccomend Fedora Core, they screw with so much stuff with that distro that it's not even worth looking at. people have called it a transition distro, but I don't see how it's any easier than using any other distro running KDE or Gnome.

I mean, c'mon, what isn't user friendly about this (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/14558383/) ?

starman714

2005-02-09, 08:15 PM

i tried slackware for a little while , too , it's available as a bittorrent at their site. it was very similar to mandrake....

The Wicker Man

2005-02-09, 11:16 PM

I prefer freeBSD or OpenBSD...lots of studying required, but well worth it.

poppat

2005-02-10, 05:19 AM

ok. thanks for the feedback.

prior to posting this thread I was going to go with Mandrake because I believe it also has "server" software with it (not that I need it now, but for later if I want to run a web server or something.) whereas suse is pretty stripped down--only client software because they sell the server distributions.

but the live-CDs sound like a great way to get my toes wet without diving all the way in. i think i'll try suse, let it run, and see how it looks.

in the beginning i'm hoping to stay away from command line as much as possible. i hated dos.

as for FreeBSD, i know there are some powerful server applications running on that. i don't know how useful it would be for a home computer though.

OK, anyone know of some good Linux programming links or books?

i can sit there and search Google till the cows come home (already done it) and not find anything worthwhile or up-to-date regarding programming. i am an intermediate VB programmer and advanced-beginner c++. tiypically with Windows, you do a lot of API calls to get your program up and running and interface with hardware and the os. I have no idea how this works with Linux. i'm kinda hoping linux allows direct hardware addressing, which windows hasn't since 98 i belive.

if you know of any GOOD links or books, let me know. i don't need a lesson in c/c++ so much as i need a primer on the peculiarities of linux and program compilation.

is there anyone using Linux right NOW to view this website? anyone use linux to download bootlegs?

just wondering if you folks acutally use linux daily or just to play around with.

:wave:

DDSTree

2005-02-10, 05:25 AM

moving to TB, where this belongs...

and people do post there pop

jazzbo

2005-02-10, 07:21 PM

OK, anyone know of some good Linux programming links or books?

i can sit there and search Google till the cows come home (already done it) and not find anything worthwhile or up-to-date regarding programming. i am an intermediate VB programmer and advanced-beginner c++.

If you're familiar with c++, you might want to give Mono a shot. There's a book published by O'Reilly called "Mono: A Developer's Notebook" which is pretty good. I've done some basic development with it.

Mono is available at: http://www.mono-project.com

Another popular option is Python. Again I'd check out O'Reilly for books. A lot of great tutorials available for that as well. I'd recommend picking a language that looks learnable, and then look for books and tutorials.

is there anyone using Linux right NOW to view this website? anyone use linux to download bootlegs?

Yes, and yes. The thing people need to realize is that I would guess the vast majority of the tools that people use: shorten, flac, shntools, bit torrent (the original client) are all programs that were available first on unix systems, or at least were available concurrently.

A lot of the early electronic bootleg traders were unix users, as they were the ones who had the know-how to setup the ftp sites and what not and they really have played a major role in pushing the technology along.

just wondering if you folks acutally use linux daily or just to play around with.

Personally it's the only operating system I have had installed at home since 2000; and it's what I use all day at work. So yes there are real live linux users out there.

Beleaguered

2005-02-10, 10:54 PM

i can sit there and search Google till the cows come home (already done it) and not find anything worthwhile or up-to-date regarding programming. i am an intermediate VB programmer and advanced-beginner c++. tiypically with Windows, you do a lot of API calls to get your program up and running and interface with hardware and the os. I have no idea how this works with Linux. i'm kinda hoping linux allows direct hardware addressing, which windows hasn't since 98 i belive.
If you know VB & a litte C++, I suggest you try Python with a gui toolkit (pyGTK or wxPython). I found it very easy to learn using the provided documentation and examples. And the apps are, for the most part, cross-platform compatible. FYI...the main Bittorrent program is writen in Python.